A smartphone 100 (FIG. 1A) of the prior art enables a user to make a telephone call as well as provides support for multiple applications (“apps”), such as a web browser or email client. An example of a smartphone is the product called “iPhone” available from APPLE INC, e.g. as described in US Patent Publication 20080122796 published on May 29, 2008 by Jobs et al, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,479,949 granted to Jobs et al on Jan. 20, 2009 both of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety as background information on conventional smartphones.
One of the applications (“apps”) in such a smartphone 100 may be, for example, a store application program (“store app”) 101 (FIG. 1A) that enables users to download additional applications. Specifically, on touching store app 101 (FIG. 1A), smartphone 100 displays the user interface illustrated in FIG. 1B, wherein the user may enter a search term in box 102. Below search box 102 is displayed a list 103 of identifications 103A-103D of application programs, such as a music app, a camera app, a travel app and an app to search for toys, any or all of which may be downloaded into smartphone 100, from a computer at a predetermined address on the Internet.
One such app is created by YouTube, to enable a user to view on the smartphone iPhone, any video that is posted on the YouTube website. Specifically, touching a YouTube icon shown by the user interface of the iPhone opens the YouTube app, which displays on a touch screen of the iPhone, a main page of the YouTube website. The user may then enter appropriate keywords in a search field on the iPhone's touch screen, to find and select a video which is then displayed on the iPhone's touch screen. For more information, see an article entitled “A Tutorial on Watching YouTube Videos From an iPhone” by T I Kleban published on Ezine on Oct. 19, 2007. Another app called “vTap” allows a user to search for videos on the web, for example at the following websites: YouTube, MySpace, Dailymotion, news sites like the Associated Press and Reuters, even ESPN. For more information, see “Possibly the best iPhone Web app yet: vtap trumps built-in iPhone YouTube app” by Ben Wilson published on CNET, on Nov. 2, 2007.
The two apps described in the previous paragraph require the user to view video on a screen built into a smartphone. Another app called “i.TV” enables a user who subscribes to Netflix to manage their queue of films available via Netflix, and also enables the user to control a digital video recorder (DVR) of the type available from TiVo, Inc. For more information, see the following articles each of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety as background: (A)“Appiphilia: i.TV app tunes in new features for iPhone” published by Michelle Maltais of the Los Angeles Times on Dec. 23, 2008; (B) “i.TV's iPhone app gets deep Netflix integration” published Nov. 10, 2008 by Josh Lowensohn of CN ET and (C) “i.TV for iPhone: Cluttered but promising entertainment guide” published Aug. 17, 2009, by Erica Sadun of Weblogs, Inc.